Cold Brew Coffee Ratio: Concentrate vs. Ready-to-Drink (Chart)

For cold brew concentrate, use a 1:5 ratio — 1 part coffee to 5 parts water by weight, or 200 g of coffee per liter of water — then dilute it about 1:1 with water or milk. For cold brew you can drink straight from the jar, use about 1:12, or 83 g per liter.

Cold brew needs far more coffee than hot coffee because cold water extracts slowly. Pick which style you want first; everything else follows from that choice.

Concentrate or ready-to-drink?

Concentrate is the more flexible option. It takes up less room in the fridge, stands up to milk, and you can dilute each glass to taste. Ready-to-drink cold brew uses less coffee per glass of finished drink only if you’d otherwise over-dilute; for most people the cost per cup ends up similar.

Cold brew ratio chart

Concentrate (dilute before drinking)

Ready-to-drink

The coffee ratio calculator has a cold brew mode if you want to start from the number of glasses instead.

In cups and ounces (no scale)

If you don’t have a scale, a commonly used volume recipe for concentrate is 1 cup of coarsely ground coffee to 4 cups of water. Be aware that’s much weaker by weight than it looks: a cup of coarse grounds weighs only around 80–90 g, so 1 cup to 4 cups (about 950 ml) lands near 1:11 — closer to a strong ready-to-drink brew than a true concentrate.

For a real 1:5 concentrate by volume, use roughly 1 cup of coarse grounds for every 2 cups of water, and expect to dilute it 1:1. Ground coffee varies a lot in density, so a scale is the only way to get the same result every time.

Why cold brew needs so much coffee

Hot water dissolves the soluble compounds in coffee within minutes. Cold water does the same job far more slowly, and some compounds — especially those that read as bright acidity — barely extract at all. That’s why cold brew tastes smooth, round and chocolatey, and why it needs both a long steep and a high dose to taste like anything.

The grounds also hold onto a lot of liquid. With a 1:5 ratio, a noticeable share of the water you add stays in the grounds when you strain — so 1 liter of water might give you only about 600 ml of concentrate. That’s normal; it’s already accounted for in the calculator.

Grind, time and temperature

• Grind: extra coarse — like cracked peppercorns. Fine grounds make the coffee muddy, bitter and very slow to filter. A burr grinder makes a big difference here because blade grinders produce a lot of powder.
• Steep time: 12–18 hours at room temperature or 18–24 hours in the fridge. Start tasting at the low end. Steeping much longer than a day tends to add woody, papery flavors without adding much strength.
• Water: use filtered water if your tap water tastes of chlorine — there’s nothing else in the glass to hide it.

Step-by-step: 1 liter of concentrate

1. Grind 200 g of coffee extra coarse.
2. Add it to a jar or cold brew maker and pour in 1 liter of cold or room-temperature filtered water.
3. Stir until all the grounds are wet — dry clumps won’t extract.
4. Cover and steep 14–16 hours on the counter or about 20 hours in the fridge.
5. Strain through your maker’s filter, a fine-mesh sieve lined with a paper filter, or a nut-milk bag. Don’t squeeze the grounds — it pushes bitterness and sludge into the coffee.
6. Bottle and refrigerate. Use within about a week for the best flavor.

How to dilute cold brew concentrate

Start at 1 part concentrate to 1 part water or milk, then adjust:

• Over ice: remember the ice will melt and dilute it further, so you can go a little stronger — around 1 part concentrate to ¾ part water.
• Cold brew latte: 1 part concentrate to 1–2 parts milk.
• Hot coffee from concentrate: 1 part concentrate to 1–2 parts hot water. It’s a quick way to get a smooth, low-acidity cup.

Cold brew troubleshooting

Which beans work best

Cold brew mutes acidity and emphasizes body and sweetness, so medium and medium-dark roasts with chocolate and nut notes are the classic choice. Bright, floral light roasts can taste flat when cold-brewed — if you love those, try them as iced coffee brewed hot over ice instead.

Curious how much caffeine a glass carries? It depends almost entirely on your ratio and dilution — the caffeine calculator can estimate it from the grams of coffee in each glass.